OpenAI’s GPT-5 falling short of expectations & Apple might be working on a smart doorbell.

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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS

Startup Funding Updates

Tenor, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of AI-driven leadership development solutions for managers, raised $5.4M in Seed funding. The round was led by Base10 Partners, with participation from Reach Capital and angel investors across the AI, HR technology, and learning spaces.

SkyVisor, a Paris, France-based provider of in-house automatic drone-based inspection and asset management software for renewables, raised €1.2M in funding. The round was led by Tomcat, the French public investment bank BPIfrance, Région Île-de-France, and other investors.

Aiwyn, a Charlotte, NC-based provider of a practice automation platform for Certified Public Accounting (CPA) firms, raised $113M in funding. The round was led by KKR and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Portal Biotechnologies, a Cambridge, MA-based cell engineering platform company, raised $7M in Seed funding. The round was led by IA Ventures with participation from Pear VC, Undeterred Ventures, Page One VC, IKJ Capital and other current investors.

Remodel Health, an Indianapolis, IN-based individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement (ICHRA) provider for brokers, raised more than $100M. The round was led by Oak HC/FT and Hercules Capital.

Nuitée, a Dublin, Ireland-based travel tech infrastructure startup, raised $48M in Series A funding. The round was led by Accel. Other investors and advisors included Booking.com chairman Robert Mylod Jr., HotelTonight founder Sam Shank, Priceline former CEO Jeff Boyd, Stripe CBO Jeanne DeWitt, Shopify CRO Bobby Morrison, Webflow co-founder Bryant Chou, Bird founder Robert Vis, Airwallex founder and CEO Jack Zhang, and P1 Ventures.

Sotelix Endoscopy, a Baltimore, MD-based medical device startup, raised $1.7M in Seed funding. The round included investments from individual investors, among them some of the world’s leading endoscopists, experienced medical device entrepreneurs, and other investors with clinical, technical, and business expertise.

Hauler Hero, a San Diego, CA-based tech platform that helps waste management companies scale their businesses, raised $10M in Seed funding. The round was led by I2BF Global Ventures, K5 Global, Somersault Ventures, Recall Capital, and executives from ServiceTitan.

Buildpeer, a Monterrey, NL-based construction management platform focused on real-time collaboration, raised $2.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Brick & Mortar Ventures.

CarboCode, a Cantanhede, Portugal-based biotechnology company, raised 15m in Series C funding. The round was led by Iberis Capital.

CloneOps.ai, a Fort Lauderdale, FL-based AI technology company which specializes in phone operation systems, raised an undisclosed amount in Seed funding. Backers were not disclosed.

Justt, a NYC-based AI-based chargeback management company, raised $30M in Series C funding. The round was led by Zeev Ventures with participation from existing investors Oak HC/FT and F2 Venture Capital.

bolttech, a Singapore-based global insurtech providing a tech-ecosystem for protection and insurance, raised an undisclosed amount in Series C up funding. The round was led by Dragon Fund, by Liquidity and MUFG, with participation from Baillie Gifford, Generali – through Lion River, the Group’s company dedicated to Private Equity, and others. Ridhi Chaudhary, CIO of Dragon Fund, is joining the Board of Directors.

Embeddable, a London, UK-based developer of a tool for building interactive customer-facing analytics directly within software applications, raised €6M in Seed funding. The round was led by OpenOcean, with participation from existing investors including Four Rivers and TechStars.

Mindgard, a London, UK-based company which specializes in securing AI, raised $8M in funding. The round was led by .406 Ventures with participation from Atlantic Bridge, Willowtree Investments and existing investors IQ Capital and Lakestar.

Waken Mouthcare, a London, UK-based oral care brand creating mouthcare products, raised £950M in Crowdfunding. 215 investors participated in the campaign via Republic Europe (formerly Seedrs).

tiun, a Zurich, Switzerland-based fintech startup helping media providers to attract, engage and convert younger audiences, raised $2.5M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Founderful and included participation from Blue Wire Capital and a16z scout Maximilian Lehmann, among other angel investors.

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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET

Venture Capital Updates

Peter Wang has launched Skyseed, a $1 million fund and incubator to support projects built on Bluesky's AT Protocol, offering equity investments around $100,000 for established teams and smaller developer grants of $5,000-$25,000 for promising individual projects. The fund, which could potentially grow to $5-10 million, aims to foster a decentralized social networking ecosystem that isn't solely dependent on advertising revenue. Wang envisions the AT Protocol enabling diverse, specialized social networks that can better serve different communities, drawing parallels to the early internet era of 1996 and emphasizing the importance of empowering early adopters and innovators.

Jessica Kamada, former COO of marketing agency Bamboo, has launched Swizzle Ventures with over $5 million for Fund I, focusing on early-stage investments in companies addressing women's key challenges in caretaking, health and wellness, and finances. The firm, which began operations in 2023, has already invested in mental healthcare platform Mavida Health and enters the market at a crucial time when issues like the caregiving crisis, women's wealth transfer, and healthcare access are becoming increasingly significant.

Songyee Yoon, former MIT PhD graduate and current president of NCSoft, has launched Principal Venture Partners (PVP), a $100 million fund focused on AI startups, with notable partners including AI academics Daniela Rus, Dawn Song, and Jeremy Nixon. The fund, which will invest between $100,000 to single-digit millions in early-stage AI-native companies.

Robin Capital, a solo GP fund led by former entrepreneur Robin Haak, has closed its "Robin Fund One" at €13 million, plus a €2 million growth vehicle, totaling €15 million to invest in European B2B midmarket enterprise SaaS startups. The fund, launched in 2023 with 70 limited partners and venture partners including former Eventbrite CTO Renaud Visage, has already deployed half its capital across 28 companies, focusing on the DACH region at pre-seed and seed stages in sectors including HR, AI, fintech, and climate tech.

KEY STORIES IN TECH

Latest In Tech

OpenAI's development of GPT-5 (codenamed Orion) is facing delays and challenges, with initial training runs being slower and more costly than anticipated. While the model shows improvements over previous versions, the advancements don't yet justify the operational costs, leading OpenAI to explore alternative strategies. The company has resorted to hiring people to create fresh training data and using synthetic data from its o1 model, rather than solely relying on public data and licensing agreements.

Google has proposed unbundling its Android apps and modifying its search distribution contracts as an alternative to the Department of Justice's suggestion to break up the company by selling Chrome. The company's proposal includes a three-year ban on linking licenses for Chrome, Search, and Google Play with the placement of other Google apps, while still allowing it to pay for default search placement in browsers with more flexible terms. This counterproposal comes in response to Judge Amit Mehta's ruling that Google is a monopolist, with a revised proposal expected on March 7th ahead of a trial in April, though Google still plans to appeal the ruling.

Meta plans to release multiple versions of Llama 4 throughout 2025, focusing on advanced reasoning capabilities and voice interaction, with training requiring nearly ten times the computing power used for Llama 3. The company's current Llama models have been downloaded over 650 million times with 85,000 variations on Hugging Face, and have gained momentum through partnerships with major tech companies like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

LAST COFFEE SIP

Other News

Apple is reportedly developing a smart doorbell that would use FaceID technology to automatically unlock doors for residents, potentially working with HomeKit-compatible locks or specific lock makers. The product, which wouldn't launch before late 2025, aims to compete with Amazon Ring but faces potential risks if the system's security is compromised or blamed for break-ins.

REPORT THAT YOU SHOULD LOOK

In-Depth Insights

• How Consumer Unicorns Scale: The Two Growth Engines Behind Billion-Dollar Startups. Most founders not aware of these growth engine that consumer startups used to scale up their startup.

• Getting Off the VC Train. Reflections on the changing dynamics of venture capital and the shift towards sustainable growth over rapid scaling.

• Q3 2024 US VC Valuations Report  An analysis of US venture capital valuations in Q3, highlighting trends and shifts in investor sentiment and valuation metrics.

• Frameworks for AI Vertical SaaS This SignalFire article explores frameworks for AI-driven vertical SaaS models, addressing the challenges and opportunities for AI in specialized software markets. Essential reading for AI-focused SaaS founders.

• Channel-Startup Fit: Finding Your Sales Strategy Exploring the concept of “channel-startup fit,” this insight details how startups can determine the best go-to-market channels for their product, ensuring efficient and scalable customer acquisition.

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